Holly Mcpeak

SANTA MONICA - Newport Harbor High graduate Misty May teamed with Holly McPeak to finish third in the Beach Volleyball America women's tournament Sunday at the Santa Monica Pier. May and McPeak, the No. 1 seed, lost in the semifinals to No. 4 Linda Hanley and Nancy Reno, 15-13, but defeated Liz Masakayan and Elaine Youngs, 15-13, in the third-place match. May, a former two-time national player of the year at Long Beach State, pocketed half of the $7,500 third-place prize.

SYDNEY, Australia - Newport Harbor High grad Misty May, along with playing partner Holly McPeak nearly went under, Down Under at the 2000 Olympics women's beach volleyball competition. The top-seeded Americans were pushed to the limits in their match with Lucilla Perrotta and Daniela Gattelli of Italy before winning the match, 15-13, Friday in Sydney. Next up for May and McPeak will be the eighth seeds Sandra Pires and Adriana Samuel of Brazil in the quarterfinals.

Misty May, a former Newport Harbor High volleyball star, will be playing in her final tuneup for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games today in the Hermosa Beach Open at the Hermosa Beach Pier. May, along with her partner, Kerri Walsh, will be in the quarterfinals, facing Carrie Busch and Nancy Mason. May and Walsh are the top seed. The main-draw action starts at 8 a.m. The championship match, which starts at 1:30 p.m. has the potential to provide a heavyweight-fight-type billing as May and Walsh, could most likely take on the No. 2 seed, which consists of Elaine Youngs and May's former teammate, Holly McPeak.

The Newport Beach Breakers snapped a three-game losing streak by defeating the New York Sportimes at Harbor Island Stadium Saturday night in World Team Tennis action. The Breakers (8-5) took advantage of the Bryan brothers' presence, getting wins in the men's singles, mixed doubles and men's doubles sets. Bob Bryan started the night off for the Breakers in men's singles, beating Hermes Gamonal, 5-4 (2). Mike Bryan and Nana Miyagi played the mixed doubles third set, beating Gamonal and Bea Bielik, 5-4 (4)

Daphne Sanderson SYDNEY - Bondi Beach, venue for the Beach Volleyball Olympics, saw greatness on the first day of competition here at the 2000 Olympic Games. Many of the teams strutted their stuff during Saturday's elimination games, but Misty May and Holly McPeak blazed through their game, taking the first 13 points before their competition, Martina Hudcova and Tereza Tobiasova of the Czech Republic, could blink. Misty started it with an ace serve, then Holly digs the hit and shoots down the middle.

HERMOSA BEACH — To get a chance to break a coveted record, Misty May-Treanor will have to go through a fellow Newport Harbor High alumna. May-Treanor, who needs one more tournament title to become the winningest woman on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Tour, and Kerri Walsh will face April Ross and Jennifer Ross in a semifinal match today at the Hermosa Beach Open. Matches start at 8 a.m. and the women finals are set for 2:30 p.m. A pair of locals are also colliding in the men's semifinals today.

TAMPA, Fla. — After losing in the men's final match five different times this season, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal finally had something to be happy about Sunday. Gibb, who lives in Costa Mesa, and Rosenthal, won their first Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tournament this season at the Tampa Open. They defeated Karch Kiraly and Kevin Wong 21-18, 21-17. It was Gibb's eighth career win and Rosenthal's fifth, and the pair stopped Kiraly from picking up his 149th victory, which would have extended his all-time record.

There is always the discussion of the tangibles that you take from a team sport which might include scoreboard results or life lessons. Memories and relationships are also an integral part of the experience in athletics. I remember so many teams that had that special person who made everybody laugh, sometimes it was consciously and sometimes by just how they were. My first volleyball team that I coached at Newport Harbor High had some pretty funny guys on it. Steve Timmons, who went on to be a three-time Olympian, had some pretty funny moments and Ted McGinley, who has had quite an acting career, could really make it happen.

In 2002, Misty May-Treanor hit the lowest point in her career. In a career filled with so many highs, there have been very few lows. When she was 24, she was down there. It didn't have so much to do with an injury or a missed opportunity. May-Treanor said her mother's death caused her great pain and challenged her love for volleyball, she revealed in an exclusive interview with the Daily Pilot Thursday afternoon. She was in Huntington Beach to promote a contest with Arnold/Brownberry/Oroweat bread.

There is always the discussion of the tangibles that you take from a team sport which might include scoreboard results or life lessons. Memories and relationships are also an integral part of the experience in athletics. I remember so many teams that had that special person who made everybody laugh, sometimes it was consciously and sometimes by just how they were. My first volleyball team that I coached at Newport Harbor High had some pretty funny guys on it. Steve Timmons, who went on to be a three-time Olympian, had some pretty funny moments and Ted McGinley, who has had quite an acting career, could really make it happen.

TAMPA, Fla. — After losing in the men's final match five different times this season, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal finally had something to be happy about Sunday. Gibb, who lives in Costa Mesa, and Rosenthal, won their first Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tournament this season at the Tampa Open. They defeated Karch Kiraly and Kevin Wong 21-18, 21-17. It was Gibb's eighth career win and Rosenthal's fifth, and the pair stopped Kiraly from picking up his 149th victory, which would have extended his all-time record.

HERMOSA BEACH — To get a chance to break a coveted record, Misty May-Treanor will have to go through a fellow Newport Harbor High alumna. May-Treanor, who needs one more tournament title to become the winningest woman on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Tour, and Kerri Walsh will face April Ross and Jennifer Ross in a semifinal match today at the Hermosa Beach Open. Matches start at 8 a.m. and the women finals are set for 2:30 p.m. A pair of locals are also colliding in the men's semifinals today.

Misty May-Treanor has too many other things going on to worry about records, even if she is on the cusp of breaking one. Spectators at Hermosa Beach could be in for a treat this weekend if Newport Harbor High alum May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh win their fourth straight Assoc. of Volleyball Professionals tournament this season. That's because it would also be May-Treanor's 73rd career tournament win, which would make her the winningest women's volleyball player in AVP history.

The Newport Beach Breakers snapped a three-game losing streak by defeating the New York Sportimes at Harbor Island Stadium Saturday night in World Team Tennis action. The Breakers (8-5) took advantage of the Bryan brothers' presence, getting wins in the men's singles, mixed doubles and men's doubles sets. Bob Bryan started the night off for the Breakers in men's singles, beating Hermes Gamonal, 5-4 (2). Mike Bryan and Nana Miyagi played the mixed doubles third set, beating Gamonal and Bea Bielik, 5-4 (4)

Misty May, a former Newport Harbor High volleyball star, will be playing in her final tuneup for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games today in the Hermosa Beach Open at the Hermosa Beach Pier. May, along with her partner, Kerri Walsh, will be in the quarterfinals, facing Carrie Busch and Nancy Mason. May and Walsh are the top seed. The main-draw action starts at 8 a.m. The championship match, which starts at 1:30 p.m. has the potential to provide a heavyweight-fight-type billing as May and Walsh, could most likely take on the No. 2 seed, which consists of Elaine Youngs and May's former teammate, Holly McPeak.

Bryce Alderton They began training on this sand two years ago, on a court not far from the one they took Saturday afternoon. Misty May, a graduate of Newport Harbor High and 2000 Olympian, and partner Kerri Walsh, a four-time first-team All-American while at Stanford, have come quite a long way since they first began hitting balls to one another. The Huntington Beach Open of the Association of Volleyball Professionals Pro Beach Volleyball Tour was their latest triumph in a streak reaching dominating proportions.

SYDNEY, Australia - Bondi Beach had been having unseasonably warm weather for this early in Australia's spring and the crowd loved it. Basking in shorts and shirts, or bathing suit tops and bare chested men was the majority's choice of dress. With the quarterfinals the reward, Italy's Lucilla Perrotta and Daniela Gattelli were facing the USA team of Holly McPeak and Misty May to see who would make the top eight teams for Saturday's play. Misty scored the first point by hitting cross court, then followed with a huge block to start the USA team, 2-0. A couple of hitting errors by both teams brought the score to 3-1. Misty repeated the hit and block for 5-1. Mistakes brought the score to 5-3. Perrotta served an ace, which Misty countered with another cross-court spike for a side change at 6-4. Mistakes and an ace by Perrotta take the score to 8-6. Aces and hits by both teams bring the score to 12-8.

As memorable a day as Friday was for local athletes in the Sydney Olympics, Saturday, was not as special. Newport Harbor High grad Misty May, along with her playing partner Holly McPeak were upset in the quarterfinals of the beach volleyball competition, 16-14, before a stunned sellout crowd at Bondi Beach. In fact the other U.S. team, Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis were also ousted, 15-9, eliminating both American teams. May and McPeak were defeated by Brazil's Adriana Samuel and Sandra Pires, both of whom won medals with different partners at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.